Mastercard, Visa losing out to local players: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday that global payment gateways like Mastercard and Visa are losing market share to indigenous RuPay card and UPI payment system.

In a Facebook post marking the second anniversary of demonetisation, the minister said note ban has increased digital transactions.

“Today, Visa and Mastercard are losing market share in India to indigenously developed payment system of UPI and RuPay card whose share has reached 65 per cent of the payments done through debit and credit cards,” Jaitley said.

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) was launched in 2016 involving real time payments between two sets of mobile holders.

Its transactions have grown from Rs 50 crore in October 2016 to Rs 59,800 crore in September 2018.

Besides, the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app developed by National Payments Corporation of India for quick payment transactions using UPI, is currently being used by 1.25 crore people.

The value of BHIM transactions has gone up from Rs 2 crore in September 2016 to Rs 7,060 crore in September 2018. The share of BHIM transactions in overall UPI transactions is at about 48 per cent in June 2017.

RuPay card transactions have increased from Rs 800 crore before demonetisation to Rs 5,730 crore in September 2018 for transaction through Point of Sale (PoS) . For e-commerce purchases, it has gone up from Rs 300 crore to Rs 2,700 crore.